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Abstract

Anticipatory eye-movements (or look-ahead fixations) are often observed in complex closed-loop control tasks, such as steering a vehicle on a non-straight path (Land & Lee, 1994). This eye-movement behavior allows the observer to switch between different visual cues that are relevant for minimizing present and future control errors (Wilkie, Wann, & Allison, 2008). Here, we asked: Are anticipatory eye-movements generic or are they acquired according to the learning environment? We trained and tested 27 participants on a control system, which simulated the simplified dynamics of a rotorcraft. Participants had to translate laterally along a specified path while maintaining a fixed altitude. Ground and vertical landmarks provided respective visual cues. Training took place under one of three possible field-of-view conditions (height x width: 60° x 60°; 60° x 180°; 125° x 180°), while testing took place in an unrestricted field-of-view environment (125° x 230°). We found that restricting the field-of-view during training significantly decreases the number of anticipatory eye-movements during testing. This effect can be largely attributed to the size of the horizontal field-of-view. Our finding suggests that anticipatory eye-movements for closed-loop control are shaped by the conditions of the training environment.